girl with the dragon tattoo

September 29, 2008

I think I might quite possibly the very last person in Scandinavia to read this book. Even Pa Snow got so thoroughly into it that he spent every waking moment badgering Ma Snow about who had dunnit. My excuse is that I had to wait for the English version, and just before our trip to Malaysia I found it in the shops, perfect for the long flight.

For the Anglophone readers who haven’t been hit by the Larsson frenzy yet, here’s the low down. Stieg Larsson wrote a crime trilogy entitled the Millennium, delivered it to his publishers and promptly died of massive heart failure, without seeing the international publishing sensation the books became, with over 8 million copies sold in Scandinavia, Germany, France, the Netherlands and now in English too.

I’m happy to report that it was worth the wait. While not on the literary level of say The Secret History, the first book of the trilogy is extremely well plotted and paced. The various threads of the narrative weave in seamlessly, with believable characters. A pleasure to read, if a little on the light side, but this was holiday reading for me, so perfect.

Unfortunately the publishers seem to be drip-feeding us the next two English volumes, with the second book due out in January 2009 and the third in January 2010 (!). Any ardent Oslo readers keen for more immediate action may want to head for Litteraturhuset tomorrow night, when Hanif Kureishi is going to be giving an interview. I’ll be there, see you too?